New Beginnings
by Nanenna
Summary: Sans gets injured and caught up in a current that drags him down to the dark depths of the ocean. Thank goodness the Fell brothers found him instead of something more dangerous. Now the pair has to nurse him back to health before the heavy depths crush the delicate little surface mermaid. Underfell AU, SpicyKustard, Sickfic, Mermay


Dedicated to Skerb, who deserves all the best things in life! Thus it's a SpicyKustard sickfic involving lots of tentacles. Enjoy!

* * *

Sans lounged listlessly on the soft nest of seaweed and sponges his hosts had kindly gathered for him. It was nice. The nest, that is. His hosts were nice too. Really nice. The food they brought him was nice. Everything was just… really nice. He should be able to express his thoughts better, but that was about the limit of complexity they could handle at the moment. He felt as if his skull had been stuffed full of silt and he was tired. So very tired. He wished he could just fall asleep, but the pressure on his ribs, the too thick water lying heavy in his ribs, the sharp chill of the water that stabbed right into his mana with every breath that the heat radiating from his joints couldn't chase away… all made sleep impossible.

Some garbled noises and movement in the water drew Sans's attention to the rest of the small, dark cave he was resting in. His hosts had returned, the usual gentle red glow that accompanied them now joined by brighter but still soft glows in several shades of blue. One even seemed to match his tail. A pair of long fingered hands began feeling over his skull, distracting Sans from the blurry sight of one of his hosts placing those glows around the cave.

"A FEVER, HOW DISAPPOINTING." A gentle green glow lit up the corners of his vision, chasing away some of the heat and a headache he hadn't noticed until it was gone. "HOW DO YOU FEEL?"

"heavy. tired. cold." He nuzzled into the hands still holding his skull.

"yeah," came the voice of his other host, "yer used to shallower waters. here, got somethin' special for ya." Something was pressed to Sans's teeth, he opened them to let it in. It dissolved immediately, leaving a pleasant, fruity taste behind. Oh, he'd just been given monster food. That was nice. Another was pressed to his teeth, he ate that one too. "that should help." It really did, Sans felt better already. More sleepy than tired now.

"thanks," he mumbled.

"I STILL THINK IT WOULD BE BETTER TO GET HIM BACK TO SHALLOW WATER."

Sans chuckled at that, he didn't think waters deeper than any land monster could reach without magical or mechanical aid was shallow.

"ya wanna try movin' him in this state?"

"BEING DOWN HERE IS WHAT'S MAKING HIM SICK IN THE FIRST PLACE."

"nothin' we can do 'bout that now. least let the fever break 'fore we trying movin' him."

Sans whined, he didn't like it when his hosts argued. They were brothers, they should get along. He blindly reached for their voices, his vision too blurry to find them easily otherwise. He found one and began tugging on him until he gave in and joined Sans in the nest. He sighed happily and snuggled up to him, Edge he thinks. "don't fight," he mumbled into the soft, delicate flesh he was currently wrapped up in, already feeling warmer. He then motioned for Red to join them. He heard a deep sigh, followed quickly by the other's large body joining them in the nest, a large hand gently caressing his skull. If Sans hadn't seen their claws when he first met the brothers, injured and disoriented in waters far too deep for him, he wouldn't even know they had them.

Cuddled up to the surprisingly kind (if threatening looking) brothers, their aura chasing away the worst of the chill, tangled up in a confusion of limbs and scales and tentacles, Sans finally fell asleep.

* * *

Sans was still lounging in the nest, tail idly swishing as his hands fiddled with some of Edge's tentacles. The frightening looking monster currently had his elegant hands cradling Sans's skull, feeling over the round surface with a look of furious concentration on his face. Not that he ever looked anything but furious the entire time Sans had known him, which admittedly wasn't all that long.

"I THINK THE FEVER'S FINALLY BROKEN."

"dat'sh ghud," Sans replied with a sniffle. For some reason his body had started cranking out mucus like crazy from every joint and orifice, even from his nasal cavity.

"I WISH I KNEW WHY YOU'RE PRODUCING SO MUCH SLIME, IT JUST SEEMS LIKE OVERKILL."

Red snorted, he was currently placing more glowing crystals around the cave along with a few bioluminescent polyps.

"i dink it'sh b'caush of da cohld. sh'not sho cohld anymor'." A sneeze, followed by more sniffling.

"WELL… THAT'S GOOD THEN. I THINK. HOPEFULLY IT'LL CALM DOWN SOON, OR WILL GO AWAY ON ITS OWN WHEN YOU GO BACK HOME."

"yeagh," Sans continued playing with the tentacles, they felt so interesting squirming against his phalanges.

"I NEED THOSE BACK NOW."

Sans frowned, he didn't want to. He was so bored! It didn't help his thoughts still felt clogged up. This time with slime rather than silt, but clogged up all the same. Besides, if Edge needed his tentacles back so badly why were they squirming into the spaces between his metacarpals?

"here, i'll keep ya company." One set of dimly glowing red tentacles was replaced with another, slightly darker colored set. Sans traced over the suckers and squeezed the soft flesh.

"BROTHER, IT'S GOING TO TAKE BOTH OF US WORKING TOGETHER TO HUNT ENOUGH FOOD FOR ALL THREE OF US."

"we'll take shifts, otherwise he might do somethin' dumb like wander off an' get lost."

"'m nought a babybonesh," Sans grumbled.

"YOU'RE STILL ILL AND NEED TO STAY HERE AND REST."

"but 'm booooooooooored," Sans whined. Like a babybones. Which he wasn't. He sniffled loudly.

"see? he ain't thinkin' clearly yet."

"SEEING HOW HE ENDED UP DOWN HERE I'M NOT SURE HE EVER WAS." Ouch, that hurt. His feelings. And maybe his bones too, even if his injury was pretty much healed already. "VERY WELL, SHIFTS IT IS. I'LL RETURN WITH PROVISIONS." Edge turned to leave then, elegantly darting out of the cramped cave in a trail of tentacles. Sans thought the way he moved was mesmerizing. The way Red moved was pretty mesmerizing too, the tips of his tentacles wriggling between his metacarpals.

Sans curled up so his head was cushioned on Red's soft lower body, wrapped up gently in the tentacles he was inspecting very seriously. Red was leaned back, one hand running gently over Sans's tail. "yer such a pretty color."

Sans shrugged, "blue'sh nought all dat shpeshial a cohlor."

"maybe not, but most blue things're too dangerous ta get close ta. an' ya shine so bright, even sick an' injured, even when we first met ya yer were shinin' like a beacon."

"sh'jusht 'caush of da wavelengsh," more sniffling, "blue ish short."

"yeah, red gets swallowed up by the water faster than ya can blink."

"heh, red getsh shwallowed."

Red's hand froze, then he burst into loud, raucous laughter. His chest heaving with mighty guffaws, the rest of his body convulsing right down to his tentacles tightening around Sans. He smiled, distracted from the twitching tentacles in his grip by the way Red's face flushed. "ya got a real sense of humor!"

"danksh." Sans paused, thinking something over as Red calmed down. He had just started feeling over Sans's tail again (his face sadly losing its delightful hue) when Sans said, "you could shay i 'ave a real shansh ov 'umor."

Red started laughing all over again.

Eventually they both calmed down and Sans drifted off into a light doze. Then there was a shift in the otherwise still water inside the cave, he blearily opened his gummy sockets to find Edge had returned. Sans smiled up at him, reaching out towards him.

Something darted out of Edge's grasp, he cursed, Sans suddenly lost the comfortable hold around him even if the delightfully warm pillow was still under his skull. Sans darted for the escaped fish. He missed, of course, still feeling weak and suddenly dizzy. He drifted into the cave's wall. It didn't hurt, not really, but he made a noise in surprise. Then he was scooped up into a pair of arms, an elegant hand feeling over where he hit the wall and a few tentacles roaming over the rest of him.

"ARE YOU HURT? DID YOU SCRAPE ANYTHING? DENT ANYTHING?"

Sans cuddled into the hold, one hand trailing up to cling to Edge's shoulder. "i'm okay, i dink."

"YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE DONE THAT!" Even as he scolded Sans, a green glow surrounded the sickly merskeleton.

"shorry."

"I SUPPOSE IT COULDN'T BE HELPED, YOU ARE STILL A BIT DELIRIOUS. PERHAPS THE FEVER ISN'T ENTIRELY GONE?" Edge settled Sans and himself back on the nest, Sans firmly wrapped up in quite a few clinging tentacles. "BUT! YOU NEED! TO BE MORE CAREFUL! IN THE FUTURE!"

"here, caught the li'l bugger fer ya." Red was holding out the fish that had escaped, one like none Sans had ever seen before.

"I CAUGHT IT FIRST," Edge grumbled petulantly.

"danksh, boffa yoush." Sans took the fish and gripped it carefully as he brought it to his teeth for the killing blow. Then he slowly started stripping off bits of meat and plopping them in his mouth.

"AT LEAST YOU HAVE THE GOOD SENSE TO EAT SLOWLY."

"good shansh," Sans mumbled with a grin.

There was a groan and the sound of bone hitting bone, on his other side Sans heard Red chuckling.

"BROTHER! GO CATCH YOUR OWN MEAL. GO ON, HURRY UP, STOP INFECTING HIM WITH YOUR RIDICULOUS SENSE OF HUMOR!"

"i got a great sans of humor," Red said with a laugh even as he retreated out of the cave, crawling along the bottom rather than flitting out the way Edge liked to.

Edge shrieked, but Red was already gone. Then he seemed to collect himself and felt over Sans's skull again. Sans focused on carefully peeling the fish apart and slowly eating. With a sigh Edge let go of Sans's skull, which was a pity. His hands were really soothing. He started pulling his own catches out of his inventory, mostly crabs. He carefully broke open the shells and delicately dug out the sweet meat within. Sans found himself staring, mesmerized by those long, elegant fingers at work.

Edge noticed him watching. "DO YOU NEED ANYTHING?"

"you're really pretty," Sans blurted out.

Edge's face turned red, glowing slightly in the dim light of the crystals spread around the cave. "THAT'S… YOU'RE… I'M NOT THOUGH?"

"of courshe you are, i shaid sho."

"BUT MY SCARS… MY MAGIC…"

"all pretty." Sans smiled up at Edge, completely sincere in his compliments.

"I SUPPOSE YOU THINK MY BROTHER IS PRETTY TOO."

"eh, nought really. i mean, red ish a pretty color, but he'sh nought really the pretty type, you know? he doeshn't have your pretty handsh."

Edge blushed all the brighter and turned away, "I REALLY DON'T THINK YOU'RE OVER YOUR FEVER YET."

* * *

Sans's fins twitched as he floated in the middle of the small cave. It was incredibly cramped, but he was still feeling kind of weak so leaving the cave really wasn't something to worry about yet. Thankfully the mucus had slowed down, no longer oozing from his nasal cavity or coating his bones. Sans was grateful for that, it tended to trap grit and dirt in his joints. Instead he now only had a thin layer covering his scales, much the same way his friends produced a thin layer over their own fleshy lower halves.

Speaking of his friends, Red was lounging in the nest, watching him with half lidded eyes. He looked so relaxed that if it weren't for the tentacles stretched over the floor and walls, all twitching with readiness to catch him, Sans would think he was dozing.

"how ya feelin', sweetheart?"

"a little weak still, but much better. i can think again, at least."

"that's good, been a while since you last sneezed too. but aren't ya cold?"

"it's a little on the chilly side, but it's much warmer in here than when i first arrived."

Red nodded. "yeah, it is. ya need ta rest?" He held a hand out, reaching towards Sans.

"sure, sounds good." Sans floated gently down, taking Red's offered hand as he delicately pulled his pelvic fins in. Tentacles eagerly reached up to pull Sans snugly down into Red's squishy lap. Sans hummed happily as he snuggled up to Red, their fingers now laced together as Sans inspected their connection. He ran a thumb over the back of Red's hands, admiring all the tiny bones.

Edge entered the cave then, skimming easily over to the nest and settling down next to Red and Sans. "HOW'S HE FEELING?"

"i'm feeling better," Sans said as he reached for Edge's tentacles. "a bit tired still, but no more sneezing or mucus."

"he was swimmin' earlier too."

"THAT'S GOOD, TOMORROW MORNING WE CAN ESCORT YOU BACK TO SHALLOWER WATERS FIRST THING."

"oh."

"YOU DON'T SOUND PLEASED."

"it's just… i'll miss you two."

"awwww… we'll miss ya too." Red pulled Sans into a full body hug.

"WE WILL, WHICH IS WHY WE'LL FIND SOMEPLACE SAFE AND SECLUDED BETWEEN OUR HOME AND YOURS AND SET UP REGULAR VISITS."

"really?" Sans grinned up at Edge, "that would be amazing!" He tried not to let his grin slip, it wouldn't be the same, but it would still be amazing.

"now that that's settled, i better go git my own dinner." Red started shifting Sans over into Edge's hold.

"do you have to right now?" Sans almost winced, why did he have to sound so whiny? Especially since he wasn't even sick any more.

Red settled back down, "i suppose i could wait a li'l while."

Edge nodded, "I HAVE BARELY SEEN YOU LATELY, BROTHER, I WOULD LIKE TO SPEND A LITTLE TIME WITH YOU NOW."

Sans smiled widely as the two octopuses shuffled around until they were both comfortably crammed into the nest, Sans with his torso cradled gently in Edge's arms while his tail was being pet by Red. Again. Sans thought Red's fascination with his tail was a little weird (it was just the same as any other fish in the ocean) but didn't mind it. Edge seemed to like feeling over his skull, was he checking for another fever? That was really cute. Sans relaxed, ready to soak up all the attention he could for his last evening with the two brothers.

Edge pulled out his catch, breaking open crabs and clams before passing the sweet meats to them. Sans thought the way he broke open the shells for them was really sweet. He was going to miss getting to each such delicacies when he got back to his own territory. It was pretty funny how quickly he'd grown used to having Red and Edge around, once he got over the worst of his illness anyway. No matter how he looked at it he was going to miss this dim, cold, stuffy cave and the two sweet, gentle, kind brothers who lived within. Eventually he finished his meal, then drifted off into a fitful slumber, unwilling to let either brother go.

The next morning they left bright and early, so early the waters outside the cave were completely black instead of the eternal twilight they are during the day. The darkness was a bit of a shock after being so used to the dimly lit cave. Sans rubbed his eyes and squinted into the dark, barely able to make out shadowed masses in the water. Red reached up and took his hand, supporting Sans as he crawled along the ocean's bottom and Sans just as slowly swam beside him. Edge alternated between crawling on Sans's other side and flitting up ahead before darting back, seemingly full of too much energy. Or anxious. Too full of anxious energy maybe?

Soon the water grew brighter, a combination of being closer to the surface and the sun surely rising. Too bright, Sans ended up shading his sockets even as he squinted them. "i don't remember it being this bright."

"ya were in the dark fer a while, eyes're the first thing ta get used ta that sorta thing."

"IT CERTAINLY IS QUITE BRIGHT THOUGH." Both brothers were squinting too, Edge with a furrow between his brows and a deep scowl etched into his face. He probably didn't like being unable to see clearly.

"ya recognize anything? we close? the water's startin' to get a bit too warm fer us."

"it **is** really warm, isn't it?" Sans had started panting, the warm starting to press in. "and the water breathes kind of… weird? it feels heavy but not the way it did down there, like it's too thick?"

"OH NO." Edge stopped dead in the water, settling down on the sandy bottom. Red and Sans stopped and looked back at him. "RED, WHERE DID YOU GET THAT MONSTER FOOD YOU KEPT FEEDING HIM?"

"from some anemones i found. don't worry, i checked they were good 'fore givin' any ta sans."

Edge face palmed, "YOU FED HIM DEEP SEA MONSTER FOOD WHILE HE WAS ILL FROM BEING TOO DEEP IN THE OCEAN."

"oh… i adapted," Sans said faintly.

Red cursed, "'m sorry sans, 'm really sorry!"

"YOU SHOULD BE, WHELP!" Edge glared at Red, fists curled tightly on his hips. Then his stance relaxed marginally as he turned his attention to Sans. "YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO ADAPT BACK AGAIN, IT'S THE PART OF THE OCEAN YOU WERE MEANT TO BE IN TO BEGIN WITH. AND I'M SURE YOU KNOW WHERE TO FIND MONSTER FOOD FROM UP HERE. WITH ANY LUCK YOU WON'T FALL ILL AGAIN."

Sans shook his head, "flipping back and forth like that isn't good for any monster, i'll get way more sick."

"okay, but ya got yer friends an' family to take care of ya, right? 'cause waitin' ain't really an option either. the longer ya wait ta go back the worse it'll be when ya do."

"what if… i just don't?"

Sans yelped in surprise as Edge tackled him into the sand, silt and dirt choking the water around them as Edge wrapped Sans up in his arms and every one of his tentacles. "YES, YES, YES, YES, YES!"

"wait, hold on a minute, bro. we can't jus' keep him. sans, what about yer own bro?"

"i'd like to get a message to him if we can, let him know i'm okay and what happened. maybe even set up some visits? we could probably find a landmark somewhere nearby."

"WE CAN ABSOLUTELY DO THAT, CAN'T WE RED?" Edge scowled threateningly at his brother, even as he held Sans all the tighter.

"sure, we can do that. now stop squeezin' him so hard, you'll leave marks. an' make room fer me!" Red crawled over to where the other two were tangled up, simply pulling them both into his own hug. "'m real glad yer stayin', sweetheart."

"GLAD DOESN'T EVEN BEGIN TO DESCRIBE IT."

"yeah, me too."


End file.
